XAVIER MASCARENAS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS Martin County resident Mary Baysinger asks a question to lawmakers about septic-system problems during the Indian River Lagoon forum, On The Record: Lawmakers & Our Lagoon, in the Stuart News offices in Stuart on Monday.

XAVIER MASCARENAS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, references a facility and infrastructure location index map from the South Florida Water Management District during Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapersâ forum, On The Record: Lawmakers & Our Lagoon, in the Stuart News offices in Stuart on Monday.

STUART — Treasure Coast legislators are putting a lot of hope into the Indian River Lagoon project that got the least amount of money in this year’s budget.

Four legislators — state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, and state Reps. Larry Lee, D-Port St. Lucie, Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, and MaryLynn Magar, R-Tequesta — at a forum Monday afternoon at The Stuart News gave themselves high grades for getting $171.9 million in projects designed to benefit the lagoon and the Everglades approved in this spring’s legislative session and into the $77 billion budget signed earlier in the day by Gov. Rick Scott.

For the 2015 session, the legislators are counting on a $250,000 Senate-only appropriation for the University of Florida Water Institute to tell them the best way to move Lake O water south to the Everglades.

The study is supposed to evaluate the Plan Six Concept flow way plan through the central Everglades Agricultural Area, a proposed route on the east side of the area and possibly other alternatives. Senate staff and representatives of the institute are scheduled to meet this week to discuss details of the study.

“We all agree the water has got to go south,” Negron said. “We need to know scientifically what our best option is. I’m confident we’ll see some good science and that we’ll have a report in hand before the next (legislative) session.”

Negron credited Nathaniel P. “Nat” Reed of Jupiter Island, a veteran environmentalist who has worked at the local, state and national levels for more than 50 years, with planting the seed for the study.

At the February meeting of the Rivers Coalition, Reed said the so-called Plan Six flow way is too expensive because it calls for buying more than 50,000 acres from U.S. Sugar Corp. and Florida Crystals in the center of the Everglades Agricultural Area, where land is most productive and thus most expensive.

As an alternative, Reed suggested using existing canals on the east side of the Everglades Agricultural Area, sending Lake O discharges to a 5,000- to 7,000-acre reservoir that would feed huge stormwater treatment areas needed to treat the water properly.

“What we need,” Reed said, “is a governor who will tell the president of the University of Florida to have their engineering department study, with the Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District, a way to move 500 million gallons of water south and clean it before it reaches the Everglades.”

Negron said all options are on the table.

“The study will show us the best way for water to flow south,” he said. “Then we’ll look at how much it costs.”

Asked if he agreed with some environmentalists, including Reed, that the state “go it alone” and build the conveyance without federal funding, Negron said, “It’s too big a project, and it’s a national issue. We can’t solve it with the amount of money available to the state. ... Congress needs to start writing some checks.”

On Scott

A questioner from an online chat asked if Scott, who vetoed $69 million in spending out of the budget but kept all the money earmarked for the lagoon and Everglades, acted out of commitment to the environment or to pander to voters.

“It has been interesting to watch the governor’s evolution on the issue,” said Eve Samples, a Scripps columnist and the forum’s moderator.

Harrell came to Scott’s defense.

“All of us here on the Treasure Coast live and breathe this issue,” she said. “It’s very emotional for us. Coming from a different part of the state, (Scott) didn’t have a very deep knowledge of the issue. But he’s been getting an education. Oh, boy, did he get an education.”

On sugar money

Harrell was the only panelist who said she won’t take campaign contributions from the sugar industry and its subsidiaries “because it has become such an issue in our community.”

Environmental advocates argue Lake Okeechobee discharges should flow naturally south toward the Everglades through sugar lands. Instead, the water is released east into the St. Lucie River Estuary and the lagoon and west to the Caloosahatchee River via canals. The nutrient-laden freshwater can be harmful for marine wildlife and vegetation, and can produce algae blooms toxic to humans.

On ‘back pumping’

All four legislators said the South Florida Water Management District should not appeal a judge’s ruling that the controversial practice known as “back pumping” without a federal permit violates the federal Clean Water Act.

Last June, the district pumped nearly 8 billion gallons of water from the Everglades Agricultural Area, heavily populated by sugar farms, into Lake Okeechobee. That amount represents not quite 6 percent of the 136.1 billion gallons of water discharged from the lake into the St. Lucie River Estuary from May 8 to Oct. 21

The district’s attorney filed a one-sentence notice of appeal Tuesday, four days before the deadline.